lOS8 NOTES TO CHAPTER 6I471 (Chosen sotokufu. Chusuin ed., 1934), p. 490, which states the matrilineal rule
of succession for offspring of base persons except that offspring of male slaves and female
commoners would inherit hase or slave status. P. 486 includes among the exceptions to
the matrilineal rule the provision that the offspring of officials (laesa won'in) as well
as royal relatives by their slave wives or concubines would be regarded as commoners
(yang).
- Yi Sugon, Yongnam sarimp'a iii hyongsong, p. 175, n-47. Han Yongguk's study of
the same 1609 Ulsan registers indicated that the percentage distribution hy status among
the household heads was 1 () percent for yangban, 62 percent for commoners and 28 per-
cent for slaves, hUI because private slaves living in the families of yangban and com-
moners were not counted among the household heads and children tended to be
underreported. he amended these figures to his own estimation 3 percent yang ban, 57
percent commoners, and 40 percent slaves. Han also pointed out that IO percent of the
so/gi) nobi (family male and female slaves) and45 percent of the oegl) nobi (outside-res-
ident male and female slaves) had taken commoner women as wives. and all children of
,uch mixed slave/commoner marriages were claimed by slaveowners (official as well as
private). in most cases the owner of the female slave. Han believed that the masters must
have been forcing their male slaves to marry commoner women. Han yongguk. "Choson
chungyop ili nobi kyolhon yangt'ae, sang: 1609 nyon ili Ulsan hojok e nat'anan saryerul
chungsimilro" [Marriages of slaves in mid-Choson, part I: Examples in the Ulsan house-
hold register of 1609], Ydksa hakpo 75-76 (Dec. 1977): 185-R6, I R9-91, 197. - Chungjong sil/ok 101 :7a-b; Min Hyon'gu. "Kilnse Choson chon'gi kunsa chedo
iii songnip," p. 219. - M}'ijngjong sillok 12:24b-25a, Myongjong 6.9.kyech'uk (1551), Yi Sangbaek,
"Ch'onja sumo-go," p. I7I. - Myongjong sillok 12:24b-25a. The M)'I)nRjong sillok compilation was begun in
1568 and completed in 1571. See the preface to the Kuksa p'yonch'an wiwonhoe
I National Historical Compilation Committee] cd .. Chosdn wangjo sil/ok I Veritable record
of the Choson dynasty] 19 (Seoul: Tongguk munhwasa, 1955): 6. - Yi Sangbaek believed that the historian's opinion was a product of an emphasis on
social order. class structure, and rigid formalism in attitudes that accompanied the grow-
ing influence of Confucian thought on Korean society. Actual policy. such as the adop-
tion of the patrilineal and matrilineal rules, was determined more by the socioeconomic
demands of real life than by theoretical or ideological considerations, which were only
used to reinforce real or material interests. There is, however, no need to draw a line
between Confucian theory and material interest on the slave question, because the con-
servative Confucian line against mixing of status groups was consonant with the mate-
rial desires of the slaveowners for the preservation, if not increase, of their property. Yi
Sangbaek, "Ch'tJnja sumo-go," pp. 171-72.
Yi Chaeryong's views are closer to those of the Sillok historian than my own. Yi argued
that, as opposed to late Koryo or late Choson, in early Choson the opportunities for man-
umission were almost completely closed off. "Choson ch'ogi iii nobi yon'gu," pp.
179-^80.